Thursday, May 19, 2011

You know you've seen the kid climbing to the top of the playground equipment when he should be holding on to mom's hand and barely walking. You've probably also heard the mom telling the story of the kid proudly sitting on top of the desk/refrigerator/dresser drawers before he hit a year old. I'd have to say "that's my kid."

One of Chunky's favorite climbing spots in the house. He is so proud of himself when he can get on top of Monkey's desk to throw down all of the coloring books and steal all of the markers.

Chunky is a climber. He has absolutely no fear and can scale almost anything in our house. We often find him perched on the top of the sofa or on top of various toys (that are obviously not meant to be climbed...) He has a big time seeing how many things he can get on top of in a day. His favorites are the water table (about 16inches off the ground) and scaling the chairs around our picnic table to sit on top of it. Luckily these are quite close to the ground and fairly sturdy. That's not to say that I want him climbing on top of them - it's just nice knowing that his fall won't be so far. He can still get injured from these low heights, but a fall from a higher height would be much more dangerous.

We've tried everything we can to prevent him from climbing on top of things. We gently redirect him to safer activities. We tell him "no" repeatedly. Nothing works. We are constantly supervising him to prevent injuries (as we should as parents) but there are still risks associated with climbing furniture besides Chunky falling from the top of the dresser on to his head. What about the dresser falling on top of Chunky?

The Statistics of tip-over furniture and television accidents:

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) found more than 130 toddlers under 5 years of age died between 2000-2006 from a "tip-over" accident where a piece of furniture or a TV tipped over on top of them. An additional 16,000 children were treated in emergency departments from for injuries related to tip-overs.

- Place TVs on furniture meant for a television without drawers so children are not tempted to pull them out and climb. Look for low-lying TV stands with a lip to prevent tipping, and put the TV as far back as possible on the stand.

Maddie's Message is a website from a mom who lost her beautiful, climber daughter when a dresser fell on top of her as she tried to climb it. She has some wonderful tips on how to prevent this tragedy from occurring to your family.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

If I haven't made it evident by now with all my posts lovin' on our spring time weather and the fun it brings, I LOVE spring! I love the beach, baseball games, frolicking in the backyard and playing at the park. My family has been able to do all of the things lately because of the gorgeous weather and some time off before starting my residency program. I am beyond elated that the weather has cooperated for the first few weeks of my vacation so that my boys and I can make the best of my time off. Our weather is generally quite mild year-round, but there is something about the green grass, bright sunshine and low-ish humidity that makes me want to play outside when spring hits! I have loved every minute of our beach, park, zoo, backyard and swimming pool fun. We even had a BBQ picnic in our backyard today!

Know something else I really, really love? Shutterfly! I've mentioned before that I have a slight obsession with photographs of the boys and putting them into Shutterfly photobooks. I actually counted them today. I have 20 8x8 hardcover photobooks (not including one in the mail and one in production) plus lots of other smaller ones and a few 12x12 hard cover ones that I've made since October of 2008. If I count the 2 on their way that is 0.73 photobooks/month! I really am addicted...

My current collection of photobooks sitting on Monkey's shelf...

This is my latest creation for Chunky's 1st birthday party. It is on it's way in a bright orange box and should be here mid-week! I used the new custom path software and have fallen totally in love (again) with how easy it is to make super cute photobooks in no time at all!

WINNER IS #32 - loriag. I will be emailing you tomorrow with a code for a photobook! Thank you everyone for entering!

Shutterfly would like to give you 50 free Spring announcement cards or an 8x8 photobook! If you are the winner, I will email you a Shutterfly promotional code that is good for 50 5x7 flat or folded announcements/cards or an 8x8 hardcover photobook and expires August 1, 2011. These would be great for birthday invitations, baby announcements or even your personal stationary!

Giveaway will be open until 11:59pm on June 3, 2011. Winner will be chosen via random.org on June 4, 2011 and notified by email. Winner will have 48 hours to respond to my email or new winner will be chosen. Please leave your email in the comment if I cannot see it in your profile.

Mandatory Entry:

All you have to do is check out their site, and let me know which ones you would choose if you were to win! What would you do with the 8x8 photobook? Let me know which one you would prefer! This is the mandatory entry - leave me a comment for 1 entry!

Optional Additional Entries:

- Follow Chunky & Monkey, MD via Google Friend Connect (1 entry)

- Subscribe to Chunky & Monkey, MD via email (1 entry)

- Comment on any other post on my blog - tell me which one! (1 entry)

- Tweet about this giveaway - Make sure to include my twitter handle @ChunkyMonkeyMD in your tweet and a link back to the giveaway! This can be done once daily. Leave me the link to your tweet. (each tweet = 1 entry)

Disclaimer: I am provided with a promotional code for 50 free 5x7 announcement cards or an 8x8 photobook for writing this post. No other monetary compensation was given. All words, thoughts and opinions are purely my own.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Nothing like an indoor ballgame on a rainy Spring day... My boys are baseball boys. Trey played college ball, Chunky bats at anything that even remotely resembles a ball and Monkey thinks he is hot stuff playing tee ball. What better than hitting up a game on a Wednesday afternoon while everyone else is working?

These were our seats. How much closer could we get? We sat on the third row right against the third base foul line. We had an amazing view of the playing field and the new scoreboard.

Monkey admiring the view. He was way more interested in the scoreboard than the actual game. He had a few foul balls whiff by him that he didn't even notice.

Hanging out on the railing before the game started.

Chunky scoping out the field. He was ready to reach over and grab any foul balls.

Yay! Chunky clapped every single time he heard someone cheering or clapping. There was a lot of clapping...

Monkey cheering for the team!

Some more clapping and cheering from Chunky while Monkey tries to avoid getting hit in the face with Chunky's flailing arms.

My little champ had a good time at the game - until he got bored and decided climbing over me/the seats was a better use of his time.

Refreshing! After a quick sip of lemonade, Chunky was ready to cheer some more!

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Monkey

Monkey is our sweet, wild, super fast, genius 3 year old son. Our beautiful "yellow" boy with big blue eyes and an adorable smile is very mischievous but a total sweetheart. He can out run any of us and always keeps us on ours toes. He loves Lightning McQueen, the color purple, donuts, tractors, the beach and books.

Chunky

Chunky (aka Bubba) is the sweetest, cuddliest, happiest baby boy in the whole world. He is a ferocious eater and smiles all day long. He refuses to sleep at night and is permanently attached to my right hip during the day. He loves to roar and steal big brother's cars.